


hopin' we'll meet again

by perksofbeingaiko



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-24 00:23:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13799454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perksofbeingaiko/pseuds/perksofbeingaiko
Summary: “Alright, he’ll be a bit disoriented for the first few minutes, but it shouldn’t last long. Give him these if he feels like he needs them, and I’ll just be right outside if you need anything,” the nurse said, handing Aaron a cup of ice chips before leaving him alone with Robert.He pulled the visitor’s chair up and sat next to Robert’s bed, shaking the cup to keep the ice from sticking together while he waited for Robert to get his wits about him.Or, the one where Robert still manages to be a sap even in hospital





	hopin' we'll meet again

**Author's Note:**

> based loosely on [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5PhyfyG9AA)

Aaron leaned back on the plastic chairs lining Hotten General’s waiting room, stretching himself out until his back cracked and his muscles felt looser. These chairs were all too familiar in the way they managed to provide the least amount of comfort when anxieties and stressors were already at their highest. He could feel a headache forming – a _pleasant_ mixture of too little sleep and worry bathed in the fluorescent lights that shined against the linoleum floors – but he pushed it aside in favor of fiddling with his ring.

He was in a state, to say the least. He had gotten dressed in a rush out the door, having grabbed the first things he could find to get them into the car and on their way to the hospital. Now, here he was in the far too crowded waiting room considering the time in his sleep shirt and joggers with one of his more tattered hoodies that he owned. The sleeves were distressed from how he had pulled on them over the years, the front pocket sunk low from stretching it out.

It had become sort of a communal hoodie over the last year. It was big enough that Robert could wear it on one of his lazier nights, and equally big enough for Liv to curl into a ball and pull the hoodie over her knees while Robert and Aaron would hog the blanket on the couch. It wasn’t meant to be worn out of the house, but Aaron was glad for it right now.

He was overreacting.

It was just a burst appendix. A routine surgery. Nothing to be worried about.

At least, that’s what the nurse had told him when another nurse wheeled Robert away from him down the hall, leaving Aaron pacing the lobby while the nurse tried to urge him to have a seat.

And he understood, he _did_.

But it was half four in the morning and the memory of Robert’s face blanching as he had stumbled out of bed and slammed the bathroom door behind himself were making him dizzy, and he didn’t feel much like thinking rationally. Instead, he replayed the gagging from behind the closed bathroom door and his own voice begging Robert to let him in. The image of Robert’s pale face and his shaking hands as he told Aaron to take him to hospital running loops through his mind.

The muscles around his eyes were straining with how tightly he was squeezing them shut, and he shook himself as he pulled out his phone to send a text to Liv and Victoria, letting them know what was going on. Liv had school today, but still wouldn’t see the text for hours. Vic might, but he didn’t want her storming her way out here as if Robert were dying.

Because he wasn’t. It was a routine surgery, nothing more.

They were just cutting open his husband and gutting him before sewing him shut again.

_Routine_.

He clung to the part of his brain that reminded him in bright flashing letters that he was being dramatic. He’d definitely seen worse in this very hospital than appendicitis. He’d _been through_ worse only a few years ago. But Robert never got sick. Every time he’d ended up here, it was due to outside forces. In the years that he’d known him, Robert hardly got so much as a day cold before being back on his feet as if nothing had happened.

_And we’re all better for it. He’s a nightmare when he’s sick_ , Aaron thought to himself, smiling for the first time in the last few hours at the image of Robert trudging his way through their home in a dressing gown and a permanent pout.

“Mr. Sugden?” he heard a nurse call, and he stood quickly. He didn’t bother correcting her about the last name. They were married, and he really didn’t need any additional confusion. “The surgery has gone well, and you’re welcome to see him now if you’d like,” she continued, smiling brightly at him when he nodded.

Aaron followed the nurse into Robert’s room and watched her check over his charts and fuss with the equipment beside his bed. _You’d think I would know more about this stuff with how often we end up here_ , he thought to himself before giving the nurse and awkward tight smile when he made eye contact with her.

Robert looked normal for the most part, just the breathing tubes giving any sort of indication that he’d gone through anything traumatic. He moved around to Robert’s bedside and pressed a kiss to his forehead, breathing out a laugh when Robert’s nose scrunch at the contact.

“Alright, he’ll be a bit disoriented for the first few minutes, but it shouldn’t last long. Give him these if he feels like he needs them, and I’ll just be right outside if you need anything,” the nurse said, handing Aaron a cup of ice chips before leaving him alone with Robert. He pulled the visitor’s chair up and sat next to Robert’s bed, shaking the cup to keep the ice from sticking together while he waited for Robert to get his wits about him.

While Robert started to slowly stir awake, Aaron took his hand and pressed a quick kiss to the back of it. The worry he had been building up since Robert had startled him awake had been draining, and the relief of seeing him now exhausted him. Robert groaned beside him for a second before he started coughing, causing him to cycle back to groaning pitifully.

Aaron took mercy on his husband and stood from his chair, pushing Robert’s hair back from his forehead. He waited for Robert’s eyes to open fully before showing him the cup and tipping a few pieces into his mouth. While Robert let the ice melt in his mouth, he stared at Aaron curiously.

“Did the doctor send you?” Robert asked, his voice hoarse and clearly bleary eyed. Aaron set the cup on the bedside table, which Robert must have taken as a sign to keep talking. “You are gorgeous,” he continued, and Aaron finally took notice to that, squinting his eyes and looking around the room before looking back at Robert.

“You alright?” Aaron teased, pretending not to appreciate the endearment as much as he did. Robert had been in the habit of using words like “beautiful” and “gorgeous,” but it still made Aaron flustered all the same.

Robert didn’t respond, instead choosing to scan his eyes over Aaron’s body before refocusing back on his face. “They’re really pulling out all the stops,” Robert mumbled, more to himself than anything, and Aaron rolled his eyes.

“Just eat your ice,” Aaron insisted, bringing the cup back up for Robert to hold.

“Wait,” Robert said, blinking like he was trying to remember something as he pushed the cup away from him. Aaron huffed, but Robert just flopped his hand through the air in the vague direction Aaron was standing. “Aaron? Why are you here? Are you hurt?” Robert asked him, suddenly looking worried as he took in the hospital room around him.

“I’m alright. Eat your ice,” he said again, not giving Robert the opportunity to bat the cup away again, instead pressing it back to Robert’s lips and tilting back, Robert unblinkingly keeping eye contact but opening his mouth all the same.

Robert chewed the ice slowly, wincing as the cold stung his teeth like it usually did when he’d unthinkingly bite into his ice cream, before giving Aaron a disgruntled pout.

“Are you married?” Robert asked, pointing at Aaron as if he were accusing him of something.

Aaron sighed deeply, squeezing at the bridge of his nose while he collected himself so he didn’t roll his eyes at his very obviously confused husband, knowing it wouldn’t really help things. “Y’know, I’m rethinking it,” he muttered to himself before showing Robert his left hand. “Yeah, I am. And look,” he said, grabbing Robert’s left hand and holding it up next to his own so Robert could see, “Would you look at that. They match,” he teased.

Robert brought his ringed hand up to his face and looked back and forth between it and Aaron before flopping his hand back down. “Oh,” he said in an awed voice, smaller than anything Aaron had heard from him, before he paused and looked out in front of him, wide-eyed as if he were scouring his mind for the memory. “Whoa. How’d I get that lucky?” he asked, staring back up at Aaron in wonder.

Aaron bit at the skin on his lip, flushing under Robert’s confused over-affection. Something about knowing Robert was still feeling a bit hazy and loopy, but still wanting to shower Aaron with love made his heart race at double-time.

“Hey- _argh_ ,” Robert groaned as he tried to sit up, clutching at his stomach as he lowered himself back down. “Don’t do that,” Robert said with a tight voice, gesturing to his own lips and pointing at Aaron’s, urging him to stop chewing at them. Trust Robert to be off his ass with painkillers and after-effects of anesthetics and still want to make sure Aaron didn’t unintentionally hurt himself.

Robert tried to smile once Aaron stopped, but his face scrunched in pain as he kept holding his stomach. “It hurts, baby,” he whined pitifully, holding out his other hand to reach for Aaron. “Do we call each other ‘baby’?” he asked when Aaron took his hand and laced their fingers together.

“We don’t,” Aaron answered, but Robert wasn’t listening.

Robert was staring at him again, and Aaron ducked his head in an effort not to blush, but looked back when he heard a drawn out, “ _No, baby_ ,” from Robert.

“Your face. I miss your face,” Robert said before looking him over again. “Turn around,” he asked, trying to take a peak, but Aaron just grabbed for the cup of melting ice that Robert had forgotten about.

“No. Now eat your ice and be quiet,” Aaron demanded, unlacing their fingers to hand Robert back his ice cup. “I should’ve been recording this. Liv and Vic would’ve loved takin’ the mick outta you for how sappy you’re bein’. You’re lucky I love you.”

“Not sappy. Just in love,” Robert sighed through the last mouthful of ice, and fondness took over as Aaron pressed another kiss to his forehead, grateful that it wasn’t _him_ all loopy and loved up. There was no telling how soppy and emotional Aaron would get if it were him instead, and he just hoped if it ever came down to it, Robert would spare him the embarrassment.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm at [strongboyfriends](http://strongboyfriends.tumblr.com/)


End file.
